Hotel barge cruise in France, weekly blog about all inclusive vacation on the canal

Sunday, 3 May 2015

19th - 25th April 2015

The first week of the 2015 season is under way after a winter of constant work and activity, the journey to and from the Paris shipyard plus the many changes to the interior of the boat made for a busy but successful few months. The winter refurbishments are finally completed however and the Luciole is looking even more magnificent than ever, inside and out. Along with the changes to the décor we also have two changes to the crew this season, specifically the two hostesses, Emma and Stephanie have joined us from England and Australia respectively and will hopefully feel like old pros in no time. We also welcomed the exceptional and experienced Isabella back to the boat to train our new members and share a trick or two with the girls. Joining them are the old familiar faces of Captain Francisco, Tour guide Anna, Chef Marc, and Matelot Tom.

If this first week was a precursor to the ambience and satisfaction of the rest of the season then we should be in for a joyous summer. It was an excellent week that ended before we even knew it had begun. The sun was shining, the passengers were absolutely wonderful people who seemingly had as good a time as the crew, judging by the smiling faces all around. We had two special reasons to smile this week and great excuses to celebrate, first of all for the honeymoon couple Nikolas and Lauren, and secondly for the birthday of Francisco, so big congratulations to all.

In addition to all the celebrations and the reuniting of the crew, we saw the many familiar faces of the lock keepers of the Nivernais, it's always good to catch up and see how things have changed, though as is typical for Burgundy nothing has changed and things continue as they seemingly always have done. The biannual crossing of the horses as a favour for Olivier the lock keeper also took place, always an exciting moment to see the boat rocking around in the lock under the weight of such enormous creatures. More surprisingly still, there was no special surprise deposited by the horses during the crossing for Deck hand Tom to clean up, so all in all a most successful endeavour, an extremely effective winter, and a most satisfying week and hugely enjoyable group of people to begin our season on. Here's hoping for many more of the same.

Arrival drinks on the sun deck. From left to right: Nikolas, Lauren, Ronda, Rob, Marie, Ellen, Anne-marie, Greg and Monica. Photo courtesy of the lovely Monica.

L'ecluse de Vaux the lock of friend of the Luciole, Olivier, leading one of his two horses across the bow deck.